April 26, 2017

The ship landed at the beautiful port of Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France, this morning, just a few miles from Nice in the state of Provence.  

It was raining rather hard when we woke but it’s good to be back in France, so nothing was going to stop us.  We were on the first launch of the day off the ship. 

Pat and I caught the train to Nice and we were on our way.  When we got to the Nice train station we, of course, had to use the bathroom.  But soon found one there was a problem…each person must pay 80 Euro cents to go to the bathroom.  So Pat and I had to quickly count our change to come up with the proper amount before disaster struck. 

Now it was tour time.  In front of the train station is a tourist bureau.  We thought they’d help us determine what to do and where to go.  That wasn’t to be.  The woman behind the counter couldn’t have cared less.  We set off on our own adventure.  We discovered the old section of Nice where there was a beautiful outside market with millions of flowers, spices, cheese, meat; basically anything you’d want.  The buildings were remarkable.  Such history, such design.  We just walked the streets, stopping to buy some goods, have some wine, or just watch the world go by.  

Beautiful little side streets attracted our attention time after time.  This is the French Riviera and it automatically generates charm.  It can do nothing else.  

It was time to return to the ship; well, the main reason was my knee was giving out.  Pat is so compassionate and worries way too much about me.  We found our way back to the train station but there would be no train for nearly an hour and no place to sit.  Command decision was made to whip out the Uber app on my iPhone and do this the easy way.  Within three minutes, Mr. Lotfi picked us up and we were on our way back to the ship.  He said that he was going to take us on a scenic return rather than use the highway.  Wow!  How beautiful this place is.  

We said our goodbyes at the port of Villefranche-Sur-Mer and decided to eat a French lunch before returning to the ship.  There were quite a few cafes around the port; so we closed our eyes and picked one.  Believe me…we chose wisely.  Huge prawn in a tempura batter over vegetables and pasta.  If that wasn’t enough, we ordered a cheese plate too.  Oh, and we didn’t forget some local red wine.  Our final feast in France.  

The ship is now underway and will land in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, the day after tomorrow.  This cruise and vacation is getting closer to the end, but we are trying not to think about that now.  We are blessed!